4/10/09 Edited to add Author's note:

A few reviewers have correctly called me on labeling my story "Zoey x Erik" when the first five chapters are all Stark! I've been stubborn about changing it because I'm planning to give Stark, Erik, and Heath as much equal time as possible, and I could only do Zoey and one other character. I think what I'll do is leave it Zoey and Erik for now because I'm working on the Zoey x Erik chapters. I think I'll just try to change it back and forth with whoever I'm concentrating on at the moment. Oh! And for good or bad, not all the chapters will be about Zoey and the guys in bed ;-). I have a plot now! I'll need about two more chapters to get to it, I want to give Zoey and Erik equal time first.

If you're a die-hard Zoey x somebody, I'm trying to label the chapters fairly clearly. Don't worry, I understand! I'm a Twilight fan as well as HON, and I won't even *consider* reading any Bella x Jacob fanfic :-D.

Thanks so much for everyone's interest!

4/15/09 Addendum...

Dangit, this is hard! Okay, I'll be honest: I'm totally a Stark girl. But I can see why Zoey wants Erik and Heath, too, and that's what inspired me to write this story. I'm trying to let Zoey fall completely in love with all three guys, while keeping her love for each of them slightly different and her relationship with each of them slightly different (AND eventually getting to this fabled "plot" thing... ;-)). So I'm changing my label to just "Zoey". I hope I can bring you all along for the ride and get you to fall in love with all three guys as well! But again - Jacob thing - I understand ;-).

Stark's gentle fingers stroked my hair, and I turned my head slightly, pressing my lips against his collarbone. His skin was slick, his chest rose and fell beneath me as his breathing slowly quieted. His hand cupped my cheek, and he tipped my face up to his, covering my mouth gently in another sweet kiss.

"That was nice," he murmured, smiling against my lips. My answering smile spread across my face.

"Very nice," I whispered back, reaching up to tangle my fingers in his hair, pulling him closer as I deepened our kiss. Our mouths moved together as his hand traveled down my naked body. I shivered, and he pulled the sheet over my shoulders and held me tighter against his equally bare skin.

"I wasn't cold," I teased.

"Good to know," he answered, his voice soft, and for a moment our eyes met. I groaned when I realized that the lust in my eyes was mirrored by only sadness in his.

"No." I closed my eyes and shook my head. I couldn't bring myself to pull away, though, and instead snuggled closer into his muscular chest.

"Heath. Erik." Stark stated their names quietly, and I grimaced.

I took a deep breath. "I'm sorry I haven't – "

He cut me off with a finger to my lips. He kissed the top of my head. "I'm not asking you to," he whispered. He seemed to be struggling to find the right words. I waited, dreading what he might say.

To say he surprised me with his next statement might be the understatement of my life.

He took a deep breath, then continued in a normal, conversational tone; no hint of the whispered passions of only moments ago. "I think you should sleep with Erik. I actually don't know what you've been waiting for. Heath is a foregone conclusion, but Erik is going to lose his mind if you don't put out soon."

"WHAT?!?" I screeched. I sat up quickly, pulling the sheet with me to hide my nakedness.

A lazy smirk settled onto his face. He left one hand on my hip, but tucked his other hand under his head, resting his elbow on the pillow. He arched his eyebrows at me.

"What?" He grinned innocently, the cocky, bad-boy persona back in place.

I seriously considered hitting him.

"You choose NOW to bring this up?" I sputtered.

His cocky grin got wider. "Well, we're both relaxed, both… satisfied…" the innuendo dripped from his tone, and I silently cursed the smile that spread across my face at the reminder of our recent… satisfaction.

His tone lost its cockiness as he lifted his hand from my hip to stroke my cheek. "You have my heart, Priestess. You have my oath as your warrior. But I am not enough for you."

I wanted to argue with him.

But if he was wrong, I would have made changes weeks ago. I would have insisted on breaking my Imprint with Heath – again. I would have broken up with Erik – again. Instead I had 43 incoming text messages and 4 voicemails from Heath – and 10 outgoing texts. And I would have sent more, but reassuring Heath that I was still fine and not in any immediate danger was exhausting. Besides, he had insisted that we meet Saturday night at Charlie's Chicken, and of course I had agreed. He would see for himself that I was fine. And later that evening, we would find a quiet, private spot for me to feast on his blood, and we would both be more than fine.

I grimaced when I realized I was having fantasies about bloodlust – heavy on the lust - while still in the arms of a man I was pretty sure that I loved. The word soulmate skittered across my thoughts once again. How could I do this to Stark, whether he was my soulmate or just a guy I was falling in love with – or even just a guy I was sleeping with? I hadn't ever considered myself to be the kind of girl who would have more than one boyfriend at a time. But since I had come to the House of Night, lusting after more than one boy – and even more strangely, having them lust after me – had pretty much been my normal relationship status.

With Heath at least I had some excuse. I hadn't meant to Imprint him – I hadn't even realized what it meant or that it was even possible. And stack on top of that the fact that he had been my "kind of" boyfriend ever since third grade, had been emotionally and physically devastated by the crappy way I broke our first Imprint, and had only become Imprinted with me again in the course of saving my life…not to mention the aforementioned bloodlust… I just couldn't bring myself to break our Imprint again. And at this point, from what I understood from my advanced Vamp Sociology textbook – and how my entire body nearly convulsed with pain if I even seriously considered breaking the Imprint – I doubted that it was even possible.

Erik was worse. He was my first boyfriend at the House of Night, and I had already broken his heart once when I cheated on him with my former professor, Loren Blake. Not only had I cheated on Erik with Loren, I had lost my virginity to Loren – and Erik had walked in on us. For Erik's sake, I should really, really find a way to be exclusive with him or break up with him. To put him through another situation where he knew I was sleeping with someone else while he was still my boyfriend was pretty much unforgivable.

At least this time I wasn't sneaking around – like that really makes that much of a difference, I know. But at least Erik knew I was also seeing Stark. And Heath. Crap. But when I had broached the subject of us breaking up again, unable to control the quavering in my voice, Erik had angrily cut me off. "Do you think after all of this that I'm just letting you go?" he had hissed, eyes blazing with anger. He had spun around then, and before I could formulate any kind of answer, I had watched his shoulders fall in defeat. "I…love you, Z. I know you love me. I know you… love them, too. Just give me a chance to figure out how to handle this."

Freaked out by his mood swings and what he was suggesting – could he really be saying that he'd try to be okay with me dating him and my (cringe) other boyfriends? I really wanted to run out of the room. But the goddess-given sense I was learning to trust had prompted me to step closer to him instead. When I was closer, almost touching him, the defeat and hope and love in his voice had echoed in my ears, and I had wrapped my arms around him, feeling the rightness of us being together.

After that day… well, I knew I didn't want to give Erik up. And it seemed like a cop-out to use my Goddess as an excuse to be kind of a ho, but it really seemed like the Goddess didn't want me to lose him, either.

And I had to admit that Stark was right. Erik was so tightly wound that I kept waiting for the explosion. I could tell Erik was trying to be good, but I could also see the effort it cost him. If I slipped and mentioned Stark or Heath around him, I could see him pinch his lips together to keep himself from saying something, but he did restrain himself. We had even managed to sneak in a few make-out sessions, and he even kept his hands on top of my clothes and away from my butt or my boobs. He had obviously gotten the message that pressuring me into sex with him was not the way to go. But I could tell it took a lot of effort for him to restrain himself. He didn't say anything, but the look in his eyes, the set of his mouth, the tension in his muscles, was all absolutely thick in the air between us.

Stark's voice drew me back to the present. The sardonic tone was back. "You know that if we were human I wouldn't put up with this shit for a second. There's no way I would share you."

I couldn't answer for a moment. But only if we were human.